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Voters Pass 3 Propositions That Could Affect Your Appraisal Values and Tax Rate 11/4/09


Greg Sherman
CBS 7 News
November 4, 2009

Voters across the state approved 11 different propositions.

But some could have a huge affect on your appraisal values.

3 of the 11 propositions passed by voters will affect Appraisal Districts across the state.

Howard County Chief Appraiser Brett McKibbon sat down to explain some of the changes.

"Proposition 2 deals with residential homestead property being valued. [It] basically took market value out and said 'hey, don't value it at what it's worth, value it at what it's worth if it were sitting somewhere else in a residential property'."

He gave me an example of this change.

"If you have a $50,000 house that is sitting in a commercial area and the land is worth $500,000, you were required to put market value on that. Proposition 2 says 'you don't value it based on where it sits, you're going to have to consider the value if it was in a residential area'."

Proposition 3 isn't much better.

"In my opinion this took away some of our local control and gave more control to the Comptroller's Office," McKibbon says.

"We already have uniform standards of appraisal practices that we follow. This doesn't really give a good description of what they're adding. But it is going to take some local control and give it to the state."

Giving the state more control and changing how properties are valued could affect everyone.

"Making more and more things not taxable at their market value but the things that are left at their market value, that's pushing more of the taxes off on those types of properties. Fewer properties you have to tax the more your rate's going to have to be."

Proposition 5 will consolidate individual county review boards into multiple county review boards.

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